Examining age-related shared variance between face cognition, vision, and self-reported physical health: a test of the common cause hypothesis for social cognition

The shared decline in cognitive abilities, sensory functions (e.g., vision and hearing), and physical health with increasing age is well documented with some research attributing this shared age-related decline to a single common cause (e.g., aging brain). We evaluate the extent to which the common cause hypothesis predicts associations between vision and physical health with social cognition abilities specifically face perception and face memory. Based on a sample of 443 adults (17–88 years old), we test a series of structural equation models, including Multiple Indicator Multiple Cause (MIMIC) models, and estimate the extent to which vision and self-reported physical health are related to face perception and face memory through a common factor, before and after controlling for their fluid cognitive component and the linear effects of age. Results suggest significant shared variance amongst these constructs, with a common factor explaining some, but not all, of the shared age-related variance. Also, we found that the relations of face perception, but not face memory, with vision and physical health could be completely explained by fluid cognition. Overall, results suggest that a single common cause explains most, but not all age-related shared variance with domain specific aging mechanisms evident

A Lower-Class Advantage in Face Memory

People remember what they deem important. In line with research suggesting that lower-class (vs. higher class) individuals spontaneously appraise other people as more relevant, we show that social class is associated with the habitual use of face memory. We find that lower-class (vs. higher class) participants exhibit better incidental memory for faces (i.e., spontaneous memory for faces they had not been instructed to memorize; Studies 1 and 2). No social-class differences emerge for faces participants are instructed to learn (Study 2), suggesting that this pattern reflects class-based relevance appraisals rather than memory ability. Study 3 extends our findings to eyewitness identification. Lower-class (vs. higher-class) participants’ eyewitness accuracy is less impacted by the explicit relevance of a target (clearly relevant thief vs. incidental bystander). Integrative data analysis shows a robust negative association between social class and spontaneous face memory. Preregistration (Studies 1 and 3) and cross-cultural replication (Study 2) further strengthen the results.Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences https://doi.org/10.13039/100000169Peer Reviewe

Comparison of life history strategy measures

Life History Strategy (LHS) describes a cluster of evolved traits whose adaptive function is to facilitate an organism’s reproduction. Individuals who allocate more resources towards somatic and parental/nepotistic effort and less towards mating effort are described as slow life history strategists, while those with the opposite resource allocation pattern are described as fast life history strategists. There are many measures purported to measure individual differences in LHS, however these have not yet been systematically compared. In this paper we compare the Arizona Life History Battery (ALHB), Mini-K, High-K Strategy Scale, and two Super-K Factors and test the internal consistency or measurement model structure of each measure, and the convergent validity between the measures. We found all measures show adequate internal consistency and measurement model structure and in general, the ALHB, Mini-K, and one Super-K Factor show the strongest convergence between the measures. Implications are discussed

The “g” in Faking: Doublethink the Validity of Personality Self-Report Measures for Applicant Selection

The meta-analytic finding that faking does not affect the criterion validity of self-report measures in applicant selection suggests cognitive abilities are crucial to fake personality to an expected optimal profile in self-report measures. Previous studies in this field typically focus on how the extent of faking changes self-report measurement. However, the effect of faking ability is rarely considered. In Study 1 (n = 151), we link two questionnaires, the WSQ and the NEO-PI-R, to use them for later faking ability tasks. With O∗NET expert ratings and the linked questionnaires, we establish veridical responses of optimal personality profiles for both questionnaires. Based on this, in Study 2, we develop six faking ability task employing both questionnaires and three common jobs to fake for. To score the tasks, we introduce profile similarity metrics that compare faked response vectors to optimal profile vectors. The faking ability tasks were administered to a community sample (n = 210) who additionally completed measures of cognitive abilities, namely general mental ability, crystallized intelligence, and interpersonal abilities. For all, based on previous research, it can be argued that they should predict individual differences in faking ability. We establish a measurement model of faking ability and its relation to the other cognitive abilities. Using structural equations modeling, we find the strongest effect for crystallized intelligence and weaker effects for general mental ability and interpersonal abilities, all positively predicting faking ability. We show for the first time that we can measure faking ability with psychometrically sound techniques, establish a confirmatory factor model of faking ability and that it is largely explained by other cognitive abilities. We conclude that research supporting a positive link between self-reported personality and job performance is presumably confounded by cognitive abilities, because they are predictive of both faking self-reported personality and job performance. We recommend researchers to broaden their measurements with assessments of faking ability or other cognitive abilities (besides general mental ability) in research regarding applicant selection

A Social Relations Model for the Colonial Behavior of the Zebra Finch

A social relations model was developed for 5 years of behavioral recordings from a captive colony of Zebrafinches (Taeniopygia guttata). A quantitative ethogram was applied, using one-zero focal animal sampling on an ethologically comprehensive checklist of 52 behavioral items (Figueredo, Petrinovich, Ross, 1992). Of the 9 ethological factors previously identified, only 4 of the 6 social factors (Social Proximity, Social Contact, Social Submission, and Social Aggression) were used. Major results were as follows: (1) Individual finches showed systematically different response dispositions that were stable over a 5-year period as both subjects and objects of behavior; (2) Interactions between finches differed systematically by the sexes of both the subjects and the objects of behavior; (3) Behavioral interactions between finches and their mates differed systematically according to the subjects' sex, but also differed systematically from those with other members of the objects' sex; (4) Behavioral interactions between finches and their relatives differed systematically between different discrete categories of relatives, but did not vary as a systematic function of either graded genetic relatedness or familiarity due to common rearing; and (5) Behavioral interactions between finches and their relatives showed an overall bias towards preferential interactions with male relatives.   DOI:10.2458/azu_jmmss_v1i1_figuered

Attachment Style and Nonverbal Behavioral Synchrony in Romantic Couples

Eshkol-Wachmann Movement Notation was applied to describe and quantify nonverbal behavioral synchrony between romantic partners. The interaction of 30 couples was observed across three study conditions, Pre-Stressor, and two Post-Stressor conditions when the female partner had been targeted with a stress manipulation. Participant-level behavior, and forms of dyadic synchrony were predicted with the male and females' self-reported attachment style. Results support theories from the attachment literature

Individual Differences in Emotion Regulation

In this research project, we are investigating individual differences in the use of emotion regulation strategies

Predicting Romantic Interest at Zero Acquaintance

This project includes the data and examples of analytic script for the manuscript, "Predicting Romantic Interest at Zero Acquaintance: Evidence of Sex Differences in Trait Perception but Not in Predictors of Interest", by Olderbak, Malter, Wolf, Jones, and Figueredo, at the European Journal of Personality

Emotion Regulation during the Coronavirus Outbreak

The goal of this study is to investigate the use of intrinsic emotion regulation during the coronavirus outbreak, and the impact on felt emotion, loneliness, exhaustion, anxiety, and post-traumatic growth